ยป Baudrillard Succumbs to The Real
Jean Baudrillard, the last great founder of postmodernism, is dead. I had never perceived him, or even recordings of him, with my own senses. I have not yet read any of his works directly (although I certainly plan to). To me, he was and continues to be a sign associated with a set of ideas about signs, which I am not always sure how to apply. Therefore, he is not dead much.
Low-brow obituaries will no doubt claim he inspired The Matrix. Although as he himself said, this would only be believed by those who read no farther than the cover of his books. (The Matrix is, of course, devoid of any contemporary or deep philosophical themes.)
High-brow obituaries will mention that he was still performing significant social criticism, such as his controversial essay on 9/11. Bonus points are also awarded for mentioning Paris Hilton (although I don’t expect the Associated Press will).
Here’s hoping the weekend press carries deeper analysis of his significance.
C’est exactment ca. Life is cruel.
There but for luck and non-elapsed time go we.
I am glad that I learned enough about his work to discuss it semi-intelligently before it became history, but this is largely a self-serving sentiment having nothing to do with the man qua man.
Jack
10 Mar 07 at 1:12 pm
Hello,
Just a quick note to mention that you mistyped the URL of my blog article. I know it may appear counter-intuitive, but there must not be any trailing slash. So, it is http://blog.empyree.org/post/2205 , not http://blog.empyree.org/post/2205/ . Thank you.
David Latapie
13 May 07 at 3:18 am
Thank you for watching your 404s! That’ll teach me for not checking my links.
Jared
13 May 07 at 1:31 pm
[...] our alienation is either desirable or has no alternative. (This sounds a lot more like The Matrix than Baudrillard does, eh?) The neo-Marxists (and Tara uses the Situationist flavour of neo-Marxist jargon) attempt to [...]
Postmodernism vs Neo-Marxism | MentalPolyphonics
18 Mar 09 at 2:21 pm